Numanoids, et al

 It has been my best March ever in terms of live music. Today we saw the U of A Concert Band show "The Old Sod" (featuring Rhondda, the daughter of our dear friends Shari and Dave, on flute) at the Winspear, wherein I learned that Dutch composer John deMeij wrote a Lord of the Rings-themed symphony.

Last week Audrey and I saw Alan Doyle (formerly of Great Big Sea) who is an exuberant and charismatic performer, and also deeply enjoyed the banter and dark yet often funny ballads from his opener, Adam Baldwin.

The week before that, the Rare Hipster was nice enough to take me along to Midway Music Hall to see '90s industrial music legends Ministry along with Front Line Assembly and Gary Numan, and I was a little surprised that the act I enjoyed the most was Gary Numan.

I mean, of course as a fan of new wave and electronic music I love "Cars", his signature tune, as well as a couple others from his early days and time in Tubeway Army like "Are Friends Electric" and "Down In the Park." I had come across his 2017 album "Savage (Songs for a Broken World)" and liked a couple of tracks from it, but since the show Mar 6, I have been streaming a fair bit of his material.

I was unsure how what I thought of as Numan's electro-pop sound would fit in with the hard-edge music of FLA and Ministry, but the man is nothing if not adaptable. He came out rocking hard, with the synth tones still present but masked a bit by a mix that really gave center stage to his two guitarists. 

It was kind of a short set for a man with 21 solo albums to his name (that is a new album almost every two years on average!), favouring tracks from his last few releases (Savage in particular) but still making room to fit a guitar-forward "Cars" into the middle for an appreciative crowd.

When the album featuring that track, "The Pleasure Principle" came out in 1979, most critics piled on pretty relentlessly, mocking the synth tones he pushed through guitar effects pedals, calling his music pretentious and inhuman. He was even accused of taking jobs away from "proper" musicians.

Obviously he hung in there, and today he is not only recognized as a pioneer in electronic music, but maintaining a cult following for his recent releases, which feature not only catchy hooks and powerful, dramatic rhythms but also soulful and insightful lyrics.

My Name is Ruin (probably my current fave)

My name is ruin, my name is vengeance

My name is no-one, and no-one is calling

My name is ruin, my name is heartbreak

My name is lonely, my sorrows a darkness

My name is ruin, my name is evil

My name's a war song, I'll sing you a new war

My name is ruin, my name is broken

My name is shameless, I'll tear your world open

When the World Comes Apart

And when the sun fell down

And when the moon failed to rise

And when the world came apart

Where were you? Were you with me?

When my light burns out

And when my fire is cold

And when my breath is the wind

Where will you be / I will find you

Dear God?

The End of Things (Live)

Everything I work for

Everything I long for is always just too far

Everything I hope for never comes to me

Everything I bleed for burns a scar on me

Everything I fight for leaves a bitter taste

Everything I cry for laughs into my face

Everything I scream for barely knows my name

Everything I'd die for will die just the same

In here

With me

Dude has led an interesting life (flying aerobatics, racing formula cars)  and I am glad he is still putting out music, and that I had the opportunity to see him perform live. All 91 minutes of his 2018 concert film Live at Brixton Academy can be streamed on YouTube and I have watched it twice now, but I will leap at a chance to hear him in person again.